Odd Man Out

This is the painting formerly known as 3 Pears on a Blue Plate. Now called "Odd Man Out". I think it looks like the two pears on the left are having a conversation and the poor third wheel is stuck on the outside.

Or, as my brother and I always used to say, "sitting with the coats".

I spent a lot of time on this, and I'm finally pretty satisfied with it. Only thing that bothers me are the brush strokes in the reflection of the top left pear - I may fix that. Also, I'm a little insecure about the composition. But other than out, I'm really pleased.

Since the last photo of this painting - I improved and brightened the background color and changed the shape, tone and color of the shadows. Added more light to the plate, and corrected the shape of the plate. Last - I stopped trying to recreate the exact reflection in the plate, thanks to input from Bill Tyers at the studio. He reminded me that simple is best, and that I don't have to paint everything that I see.

I managed to get a good photo that is pretty accurate in terms of the colors, brush strokes and shadows. The only thing I couldn't get to come through is how bright the lighter side of the pears are, as well as the little piece of light at the top left of the "odd" pear. I couldn't figure out how to do the exposure without overexposing.

Out of focus fruit

This is a really bad photo of a not very good painting. I'm finding that nectarines aren't really easier than pears :).

This is another quick study. I'm struggling with the black background - not really sure how to handle it.

I'll keep plugging away until I figure it out. I spent the day today moving studios, so didn't get to paint. I'll take some photos of the new studio and post them tomorrow.

She's baaaack

I've been gone for about a month, but I'm back. It drove me crazy not to paint, and I didn't expect to be gone this long but it feels great to be painting again.

I've finally moved on from pears and now I'm into nectarines. I find them easier to paint than pears. I'm going to do the same thing I did with the pears and do a bunch of quick studies and then a couple of paintings that take more time. This is the first study that I did.

I did finish the 3 pear painting (which I've named "Odd Man Out") but I don't have a good photo of it yet. Taking photos of paintings is really hard because of the glare, and the pear painting is pretty dark so I'm having trouble getting an accurate photo that shows the colors and light correctly. You can't use a flash because it just bounces right off the paint.

My Boy

Rather than bore you with yet another version of the 3 pears on a blue plate (yes I'm still working on it) I decided to post a sketch of my son that I did in November.

I won't be able to get to the studio for a while so I may not be able to post anything until next week.

I did get my new pochade box yesterday though - very exciting. I've been waiting 4 weeks for this - they make them to order. It was my gift to myself after one year of painting. A pochade box is a self-contained little studio that allows me to paint outside. It's very cool and you mount it on a tripod. I may be able to do some painting around the house and outside - if so I'll post those. My first attempt at landscapes.

My email subscriptions and feeds

Hi all - I've made changes to the way that the email updates appear - (I think) and made changes to the blog feed as well. Let me know if it is screwing anything up because I'm not clear on exactly what I did, if anything!